Uneven Policing: Low-Level Arrests During Gentrification, Fiscal Crisis, and Suburbanization

In this dissertation, I analyze trends in low-level policing between 1990 and 2015. I explore how three contextual changes may have shaped policing during this time: gentrification, fiscal crisis, and the suburbanization of poverty and of people of color. I ask four interrelated research questions: How widely did “broken windows” policing, with its emphasis on misdemeanor arrests, diffuse? Do police make more stops and arrests in neighborhoods undergoing gentrification? Do local governments experiencing revenue shortfalls cut their criminal justice functions to save money, or do they increase them to reassert social order? Did the suburbanization of poverty and of people of color lead police to make more or more racially disproportionate arrests in suburbs? To address these questions, I assemble three novel, longitudinal datasets using publicly available government data. I convey descriptive statistics in graphs, tables, and maps and I construct multivariate regression models to estimate the relationships between policing and place. I build on past theories, especially those exploring the political economy, racial threat, and crime control of policing.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2018

Author dc:creator

• Beck, Brenden

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Richard Alba

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Lynn Chancer
• Ruth Wilson Gilmore
• Michael Jacobson
• Jeremy Porter

• Criminology
• Place and Environment
• Race and Ethnicity

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2799

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-3855